Front Lines Communications

Dora Barone's defection has been all the news can talk about this week. To try to swing the narrative back around I'm looking to finalize the superhero team this weekend, and would like your input on the agents who've been trying out over the past few weeks. You all work more closely with them than I do. Here are my impressions:

• CALDWELL: Has a mouth on him, but his power looks fantastic on camera. Needs media training.
• DESAI: A little stiff in front of cameras, but follows orders without complaint and also has a flashy power.
• PÉREZ: Loyal company gal, young (we want the millennial crowd to be invested), excellent command of her abilities.
• RHODES: Excitable, but works hard. Eager to really lean in with all the superhero trappings, which is good when most of the others seem more reluctant.

Then there's the trainees.

• HALL: Impressive power, and impressive growth in her control of that power. Looks like a supermodel, which doesn't hurt with the media angle.
• WALKER: Not sure about throwing him into combat outright, but a psychic is always useful and rounds out the team nicely when presenting their powers to the public.

Personally I'm inclined to go with all six, and expand if more agents express interest going forward.

Thoughts?

What do we know about this 'Way of All Flesh'?

Esposito, I'd like you to supervise the investigation into these attacks by baseline humans on Throwback and now that restaurant. Coordinate with Andersen on working with the NYPD.

Evening, ladies and gentlemen.

I'm coming to you today with a proposal for a new PR initiative. You'll find a memo on your desks with details.

I'm looking for volunteers to audition for an honest-to-god superhero team. Capes, costumes, all of it. You'd have codenames and profiles in the press and all that jazz. The team would be doing community outreach, disaster relief, and light FBI SWAT type detail across the continental United States. Nothing overseas; these are not 'super-soldiers'.

POTUS is a big fan of this idea, and thinks it'll get the press and Congress off our backs for a while.

I'm inclined to agree, and I think we need to take back the narrative after an understandably anti-Project news cycle. After today, with the Way of All Flesh out here writing insane screeds, I think it's that much more important for us to put a friendly face on atavism.

Tryouts will take place throughout next week. Not everyone will be chosen, but everyone will have an opportunity to try out -- trainees included. Fair warning: anyone chosen will have to be publicly 'out' as an atavist, because even with costumes and codenames we need to be accountable to the public.

I'm open to any questions.

Evening, ladies and gents.

On your desks you'll find a memo detailing my proposal for a new public relations initiative I'm calling, for lack of a better working title, the Avengers Project. (We gotta come up with something else, obviously, because Disney's awful litigious.)

POTUS is a big fan of this idea, and thinks it'll get the press and Congress off our backs for a while. I'm inclined to agree.

We're talking capes and costumes, here, the whole nine yards. Put a charming marketable face on atavism, then send these heroes out to help the common man. Domestic missions only, mind you—no super-soldier shit. We're not walking into that minefield again, literally or figuratively.

I'd like your input before I put the idea to the Project as a whole and seek volunteers.

The President has informed myself and Colonel Harper that he's made an executive decision on any and all atavist prisoners we're currently holding. We have just delivered this news to Director Shahidi.

Due to ongoing concerns about their civil rights and fair trial, they are to be transferred to a newly refurbished high-security facility the Department of Atavist Affairs has built outside Newark. There they will be tried by military tribunals overseen by the Attorney General.

Those found guilty will be held at the Jersey facility for such a period as they are sentenced.

I'm sorry to break the news so abruptly, but it is abrupt news.

Dr. Khatri, what is the status of your team's new mobile power-dampening technology?

Look alive, people. Dr. Shahidi has a live one.

Moon, you free to accompany our Dionisio to a gala at the Capitale? We've got invites with your names on them. Black tie affair.

We have a situation.

A cargo ship bound for the Island was compromised by unknown atavists. A number of medical supplies were stolen, including antibiotics earmarked for our infirmary.

We have reason to suspect, obviously, that this was done by MAL operatives.

Who's free to assess the crime scene? I'm bringing the ship's injured crew in to the infirmary now.

Dr. Shahidi is resting comfortably. The docs say expect her to be out of commission for about 24 hours while they run some tests.

What happened last night, according to the big boss herself, is an unprecedented surge in Idol activity. She counts 100 new atavists in the five boroughs, all atavized last night. The signal to noise was too high for her to track them.

We've got our work cut out for us.